WASHINGTON, Dec 17 (Reuters) - U.S. government agencies

failed to meet the Biden administration's fleet electric vehicle

purchase targets and bought more than four times as many

gas-powered models, a Government Accountability Office report

released on Tuesday said.

In the 2023 budget year, agencies bought 25,300 gas-powered

vehicles and a total of 5,500 EVs and plug-in hybrids -- 60% of

11 agencies' combined target of 9,500, the report said.

President Joe Biden in December 2021 issued an executive

order directing the government to end purchases of gas-powered

vehicles by 2035 and mandating that all light-duty federal

acquisitions by the end of 2027 be electric or plug-in hybrid

vehicles.

The GAO said officials from nine of 11 selected agencies

said meeting the EV targets "will largely depend on factors

outside of the facilitating agencies' control," including the

status of charging infrastructure and whether sufficient

zero-emission vehicles are available for federal purchase.

In 2022, the General Services Administration estimated that

the federal government might need over 100,000 charging ports to

transition the federal fleet to zero-emission vehicles. But as

of November, 10,500 charging ports had been activated nationwide

by federal agencies, with installation of about 52,500 charging

ports in process, the GAO said.

The GSA said government EV orders in 2023 were about 63%

higher than in 2022, and in the first quarter of the 2024 budget

year the government ordered 4,000 EVs, or nearly 30% of all cars

and trucks. GSA EV

orders include

Tesla Model Ys and Model 3s, Chevrolet Equinox EVs

and Ford Mach-Es.

The GSA and the White House did not immediately comment.

Biden's order covered about 380,000 federal vehicles. It

does not cover vehicles of the U.S. Postal Service, which is an

independent government entity. Last week, Postmaster General

Louis DeJoy defended the Postal Service plan to buy some 66,000

electric vehicles by 2028 using $3 billion in funds from

Congress to subsidize EV charging and vehicle purchases.

Reuters reported on Monday that President-elect

Donald Trump

's transition team is recommending sweeping changes to cut

off support for electric vehicles including eliminating

requirements that federal agencies purchase EVs.